An end to 40 years of failure?

Last week, a second Greek political leader announced a proposal that will attempt to stimulate economic recovery – this time in one of Europe’s most chronically underperforming assets.

It was a very rare occasion, not least because the opportunity only arises once a decade, but also because of the occurrence of a rare thing in politics – courage of conviction.

Maria Damanaki, the European commissioner for maritime affairs and fisheries, on 13 July published a radical reform of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). There are, of course, elements that could be improved, but overall this is a proposal that could reverse 40 years of flawed management and consequent decline in an historic industry.

For a world power that prides itself on environmental leadership, the oceans are a shameful stain on Europe’s record.

Compare us with the United States. In 2010, the US hailed the ‘end of overfishing’ in its waters, brought about by a simple legal obligation that set sustainable limits and a framework for delivery that devolved power to experts and local management.

Contrast that with Europe, where the proportion of our stocks known to be overfished ranges between 63% and 82%, while millions of tonnes of fish are discarded.

It is no answer to blame other nations. We are all in this together. For centuries, the UK has shared almost all its fishing grounds with its neighbours and the UK’s fishing apologists have been just as resistant to effective EU measures as the Spanish. Illegal fishing has been as much part of the British scene as anywhere else. What is wrong with the CFP is not that it is ‘common’; it is that it is the wrong policy.

Nor is this simply a concern for conservationists. The latest official figures depict an industry in chronic decline, propped up by subsidies that will total €6.7 billion in 2014, with profit margins for Europe’s fishermen averaging 3%-6%. In a climate of economic austerity, the CFP is a wasteful programme that is profiting the industry and coastal communities as little as it is profiting the environment. And yet there is resistance to reform.

In a climate of economic austerity, the CFP is a wasteful programme that is profiting the industry and coastal communities as little as it is profiting the environment

Damanaki’s proposal faces an uphill battle over the next 12 months in the European Parliament and the famously intransigent Council of Fisheries Ministers. Only last month, the Council demonstrated the deep divisions that still exist over what is supposedly already consensus. EU ministers blocked a plan to implement the international commitment they made in Johannesburg in 2002, to ensure that fishing limits are set at a level that produces the maximum sustainable productivity by 2015.

Damanaki’s proposal would require fishing limits to be set at sustainable levels, as well as introducing long-term plans for most species. This would all but eradicate the annual horse-trading over quotas by countries, a process in which scientific advice is flagrantly ignored.

It also obliges fishermen to bring to port their entire catch of fish from certain species. In effect, this bans the practice of discarding these fish – although, disappointingly, not all.

This will inevitably mean pain for an industry already battered by regulation, steep cost rises and ever greater competition from overseas. Politicians with one eye on the next election are not always good at taking the long-term approach, but if Europe wants a fishing sector that is once more attractive to the next generation and competitive on the global market, then governments have little alternative but to embrace reform.

In 40 years of the policy, not one European commissioner has succeeded in establishing a CFP that delivers value for money and productivity for the industry, the environment and European citizens. This time, the public and politicians must make sure that it does.

John Gummer, now a member of the UK’s House of Lords, was the minister for agriculture and fisheries in 1989-93, the minister for the environment in 1993-97, and chairman of the Marine Stewardship Council in 1998-2005. He is now president of the Global Legislators Organisation (GLOBE).